The project uses 400,000 custom bricks to combine Italian classical aesthetics with modern industrial design. Bricks form both the exterior and interior elements, creating facilities like bookshelves and staircases. The layered construction unifies materials and functions, ensuring design coherence. A central steel staircase expands sideways as it ascends, organizing bookshelf levels and guiding spatial flow. Gaps in the brick walls turn load-bearing structures into display zones. Following the line of the wall-mounted bookshelves, the designer used Roman column shapes to naturally transition to the curved exhibition and seating areas.
This bookstore project, located in Tianjin’s Italian-style district known for its century-old red-brick buildings, uses red brick as a key design element to align with the historical context. Inspired by the light and shadow patterns of Venetian blinds, the designer developed a “modulated” construction approach for the red brick masonry. This creates a building with blurred boundaries, as if cut and reassembled. The design also engages with Tianjin’s maritime identity by using blue steel, inspired by the port’s seawater, to sculpt wave-like arches and layered steps that evoke the city’s seafaring spirit and knowledge dissemination.
